Ted Kravitz ‘can’t believe’ what he saw as FIA visits Red Bull at USGP amid ride height row

Sky Sports F1 pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz was delighted to witness a Red Bull mechanic demonstrate its ride height controls to FIA officials in the USGP paddock

Ted Kravitz was a delighted spectator as FIA officials visited the Red Bull garage at the United States Grand Prix to begin its monitoring of a controversial device fitted to their cars.

Much has been made ahead of this Austin event about this device which allows a team to raise and lower the height of the front bib of a car. It was initially reported that an unnamed team had held discussions with the FIA after concerns were raised by several rivals over the apparent existence of such a device.

Red Bull later owned up to being the ones using it, though the team insists it was never used illegally – and there is no evidence that it has. Still, rival teams including McLaren have been vocal about the performance advantage gains Red Bull could have gained through use of the device.

The FIA plans to closely monitor its use. And that process began on Friday after practice in Austin, when two officials from the governing body visited the Red Bull garage to get a demonstration from chief mechanic Ole Schack and to fit seals inside the car.

Happily for Sky Sports F1 pit lane reporter Kravitz, he was present to witness the whole exchange while cameras broadcasted it live to viewers. “I still cannot quite believe we are watching it be demonstrated,” he said excitedly as he observed it.

Kravitz added: “I could watch this all day, because Ole Schack is the man who knows – he has been with a loyal servant of Red Bull Racing since the beginning, so if anyone knows then Ole knows.

“He has just demonstrated, with the tools that you just saw, how it is that they use this device to affect and change the front ride height of this Red Bull. Absolutely fascinating scenes going on down here. This is the FIA understanding from Red Bull Racing how it has changed and how they are going to govern it going forward.”

Rivals are concerned about the placement of the device and it has been suggested that it is accessible through the cockpit, potentially making it so that it could be tweaked even when under parc ferme conditions. There is no evidence that the defending F1 champions have done that and, having watched Schack demonstrate how a mechanic might get to the device, Kravitz said he is starting to believe Red Bull’s side of the story.

He continued: “Having seen it now with my own eyes, I cannot believe that an FIA scrutineer who is always in the garage would not have watched that in parc ferme and thought, ‘That looks a bit suspicious’. The more I see about how this device works, the more I am starting to truly believe Red Bull Racing when they say, ‘We could not, we would not’.

“It would be evident on CCTV to get this device in there and start screwing a little nut that actually affects a bit of the car. So now I have seen how it actually works, I am starting to think there is no way they could have done this in parc ferme without a scrutineer picking up on it and saying, ‘I am going to refer this back to the FIA’.”